- Sent my D600 back to Nikon last week, preapproved for a D610 replacement.
- UPS notified me that the body arrived Monday 22 October. No updates to my service ticket online.
- I call Nikon yesterday/Wednesday 25 October to check on status. 8 minutes waiting....
- Customer service person says that they can't see the status of my replacement, other than that they received it. She tells me they are working on units that arrived on 17 October and that it will be 3-4 business days until my status is updated in their system.
- I say "Please have a supervisor call me." My goal is to ensure I will get a new 610 as quickly as possible. Not happy at that point with camera in the ether at Nikon for ~3 business days.
- I get home and find a UPS missed delivery note on my front door, from "Ni."
- I got the 610 today, new with full warranty. It was shipped overnight UPS on Tuesday.
Bottom line: Nikon's systems were unable to track and communicate anything close to real time. No auto email. No ability for a rep to say "your new body was shipped yesterday." Huge missed opportunity to remove uncertainty and fill it with "Sent out next day by overnight UPS."
I am very happy to get a new body after working my D600 hard for 18 months, but Nikon did not make it easy. If I were jumping ship, I could turn over my D610 and my used lenses right now.... But I'm not because the grass is not clearly greener on the Canon side, and it's a hassle to turn over that much gear and a significant net cost to replace lens-by-lens. Also, it's not worth the ~$700 difference for me to get a D750.
Thus, I am an happy/ambivalent very long term Nikon user. (ar)
Thom’s note: This has been a problem for at least six years that I can count: NikonUSA’s database is simply not reliable in terms of useful information about where you camera is and what’s happening to it. Even NikonUSA themselves can’t tell you accurate information, because they use the same database. It just doesn’t give me a good feeling about process control in Melville or Hollywood.